A Good Agility Class

I'm happy!  I just had a nice agility class with Weasel.  She has this distraction problem.  Lots of triggers, like border collies, running dogs, strange men.  She points at them and strains and barks all during class and I fight and struggle to compete for a scrap of her attention.  I've been reading "Control Unleashed" and trying to apply some of it to pry her attention from all those other things so she can function in class.  The sensation of trying to physically force the dog to turn her head toward me for an instant so that I can reward it (and failing) is very familiar to me. 

Anyway, tonight, I stuffed her in the car and harnessed her in.  She ran back and forth to the extent that she could in the harness and was over the top stimulation-wise by the time we got to class.  However, class was apparently cancelled.  Some of us didn't get the message.  So we worked a bit and I tried an exercise from Control Unleashed called "Look at that Dog"  It felt so weird.  But it seems to be working!  The other dogs running about were much less fascinating and she was soon much more focused on me than she ever had been with all the Look at Me and constant treating.  In the space of a few minutes, she was staring at me, barely flicking her eyes at the other dog. 

Since their were so few dogs there, she was off leash a lot, and no running off or checking out to sniff.  She stuck with me.  Her expression was happy and engaged, rather than frantic and obsessive.  She actually was interested in her toy instead of magically loosing interest as soon as we got to agility class.  I wasn't competing for her attention, and it was great!   Hope I can carry it forward to the next class.

Indoor Games

It happens a lot this time of year.  The weather gets cold and dark.  I get lazy.  Spoiled One starts tugging on my pant legs and bringing me shoes while Weasel heaves theatrical, despairing, sighs from whatever dog bed she is curled up in.

They're bored.

Lately, Demon Puppy adds her contribution.  She goes and sits by the back door.   I offer to let her out.  She declines.  Over and over.  Eventually, after a few minutes, the combined telepathic messages of three dogs asking "why do you have dogs if you aren't going to play with us?" wears me down and I start playing their indoor games.

Spoiled One's mostest favortest ever is "Get the puppy."  He bounces around and I chase after him, trying to catch him or grabbing at this legs.  He makes wonderful snarly faces and pretends to bite at me.  Weasel is too soft and gentle to wrestle with people, but she likes a bit of ticklebug. 

Another favorite is "Where is it?"  The dogs have to wait, out of sight, in a sit-stay, while I hide a toy.  Then, I release them and they race around to find whatever it is. 

These games all started out as training games.  Wrestling teaches the dog to have soft mouth around people and to exercise self-restraint, even when excited and involved in the game.  Ticklebug shows the dog that being touched unexpectedly is fun.  Where is It works on sit-stays, keeping the stay when I am out of sight, and competing without aggression.

I want to come up with some games to help teach Weasel to relax and connect with me better at trials, but that may be more of a massage type thing.  I wonder if I can find a book on TTouch. 

Sekhmet Does the Baby Jumps

Awwww, my puppy is awesome.  Just have to say it.  Every flyball practice, I am amazed by her.  Today, she was driving over the baby jumps to a person holding a tug.  (Since she is still a baby, I don't want to use real jumps, but these were close, real jumps but very low to protect the baby joints, and the surface was soft grass.)  This was the first time she was introduced to baby jumps.  I thought I would be tripping over her and falling over jumps.  Nope.  She just fixed her eyes on the prize and booked for the person at the end of the lane.  All I had to do was let go of the leash.  No gates or nuttin!  Thank you, thank you, thank you for this awesome puppy.  It's kind of bewildering how she just gets stuff.  No training required, just get out of the way. 

Nacho, another dog at practice did pretty well, also.  He had his debut in singles at a tournament two weeks ago, but, alas, sort of went a bit ga ga and didn't complete a single run.  Well, his owner was working with him and they made up a new game involving a collapsible bowl  at the finish line, and Nacho seemed to "get it."  He was doing full runs with another dog in the other lane and having fun.  The young dog who was running in the other lane, who has a tendency toward blowing it off and shutting down, was doing recalls with enthusiasm and tugging. 

All in all, a good practice for the youngsters.  The oldsters had fun, too.  Weasel is out of her cone and got to get out and play for the first time since the "incident."  She had fun, was a bit ga ga, but showed no signs of being uncomfortable or affected by it.  Spoiled one ran, foamed, chased tennis balls and had fun.